Coun Forbes said: “We can’t wait a year for proposals to come forward. We need to ensure that England and the North East moves at the same speed as Scotland, otherwise we will simply stir up resentment about again being overlooked.”

Labour leader Ed Miliband has promised to hold a “constitutional convention” to discuss these issues - but it won’t meet until the autumn of 2015.

Other attendees included Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw, the former Culture Secretary. The private meeting was chaired by Southampton MP John Denham, a former Business Secretary who was Mr Miliband’s Parliamentary Private Secretary until last year.

The group has no official name or structure, but one of those attending said it was likely to become more formalised as time went by.

At the moment there is a Scottish Labour Party which is part of the UK-wide national party, but no English equivalent. Members agreed that Labour had to answer complaints that England had been overlooked when Scotland was promised new powers in the run-up to the independence referendum.

They also opposed Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposal for “English votes for English laws”, which would probably mean barring Scottish MPs at Westminster from debates on issues specific to England. Instead, the Labour group want to devolve power over policy areas such as heath to local or regional bodies, so that Westminster is less important.

Coun Forbes said: “We need to ensure Labour is seen to speak up for all of these identities within England, or we simply abandon Englishness to the far right.”

He added: “It is crucial in the debate about powers for Scotland that England isn’t overlooked, and therefore I’m discussing with other council leaders and MPs how we give England a voice in the national conversation about devolution.”

He said that the question of how to reform the House of Commons had been on the spotlight but this was only important if decisions were made in Parliament.

“Taking decisions more locally engages communities and businesses in a different way and gives us a much stronger sense that we are in control of our own destiny,” he added.

Labour had to press ahead with devolution proposals, he said.

“There are probably four or five areas where the Government could immediately take steps to devolve responsibility for decision-making.

“Skills, transport, housing, health and social care and economic support, such as the regional growth fund.”

And he added: “It is crucial that England feels it has a political voice. In the same way that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do.”

The North East Combined Authority, which brings together seven councils in the region, was already in place to take on a larger role, he said.

Simon Henig, leader of Durham Council and chair of the North East Combined Authority, said: “A number of meetings are going on because obviously it’s an important issue for the North East and it’s an important issue for people across England. We need to be responding as a Labour party.

“The first thing to say is that we do have to respond.

“We need proper devolution within England, not a change in Parliamentary procedure.

It’s not good enough to say we are going to change who can vote in Parliamentary divisions. It’s got to go a lot further than that.”

He added: “There needs to be change and its important we say that within the Labour Party.”

Labour spokesmen point out that the party has already committed to devolving £30bn to combined authorities. Regions had also been invited to contribute ideas to Labour’s Constitutional Convention which will look at how the governance of the country should change.